#58 Energy

Janne needed to move. At home on weekends, she would take her morning coffee to wake up, read a bit and then she would start moving. I always joked with her that I wanted to rest the whole weekend, but she was making me guilty so I had to start moving too.

Nothing demonstrated more her energy as when jogging. Janne needed to run for a few kilometers every few days. It was her moment to be alone with her thoughts. In times when she was feeling a tiny bit down, my job became to push her out of the door. She would go out, run a few kilometers and come back all happy and full of energy. She started doing the same for me even if I couldn’t do as much jogging, but at least I would walk around with my camera in hand or my headphones. I would come back all energized too.

Janne would carry her running shoes wherever she travelled. I remember this particular day when we visited her hometown. She wanted to go jogging when Daniel was very young. We paired up so I would go pushing the stroller and she could go run for an hour. We agreed to meet at a certain point. At the time, I was testing a new tilt-shift lens. She became my fast moving test to see if I could focus fast enough as the lens wasn’t automatic. Again, memories and photographies is what fills me these days.

A couple of years ago, Janne decided to start training with a gym instructor. She was going twice a week and also would come back happy enjoying the activity and her progress. She wanted to strengthen her muscles and lose some weight. A couple of times she thought of cancelling it as it was not cheap, but again, I pushed her to continue going.

She stopped jogging around the time her chemotherapies started. As this treatment is heavy, her energy is what went first. She still kept going to the gym up to about a month before she died. She just wanted to push herself as much as possible. I always admired her because of that. She made a photo of herself in the gym. By then, she had had eight months of chemotherapy, but such little thing was not going to stop her.

Something that definitely stayed with me is her capacity to push herself. Life, you have to approach it moving.

Janne, I won’t stop.